Approximately 3,700 Soldiers will deploy as part of the United States’ commitment to maintain the level of forces necessary to provide sufficient military capability for the NATO-International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to further improve security and stability operations.

“The Bastogne Soldiers of our 1st BCT have been preparing for several months for their upcoming deployment to Afghanistan in anticipation of this formal announcement,” said Maj. Gen. John F. Campbell, 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT) commanding general. “They continue to train hard and I have no doubt they will be prepared to face the challenges of the tough fight in Afghanistan. They will replace a brigade combat team currently deployed in Eastern Afghanistan as part of a scheduled rotation of forces this spring approximately the same time our division headquarters deploys next year.” The deployments of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101 Combat Aviation Brigade and the headquarters of the 101st Abn. Div. were previously announced.

Washington – U.S. Rep. John Tanner, chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, joined with colleagues in thanking federal agencies for improving service to wounded warriors who are eligible for Social Security disability benefits. These improvements were cited in a new report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Tanner also urged the agencies to make additional improvements recommended by GAO.

“The Subcommittee on Social Security is committed to ensuring that those who have made great sacrifices in service to our country receive prompt and fair treatment when they apply for Social Security disability benefits,” stated Chairman Tanner, a veteran of the United States Navy and the Tennessee Army National Guard. “I applaud the Social Security Administration for the success of its efforts to improve outreach and service delivery to wounded warriors, and I am confident the agency will work hard to address the remaining barriers identified by the Government Accountability Office.”

“We owe a debt of gratitude to all who have worn the uniform,” added Congressman Sam Johnson, an Air Force veteran, former Prisoner of War and Ranking Member on the Social Security Subcommittee. “One of my top priorities is helping current and former military men and women get the care they deserve and the benefits they merit. While I am pleased to learn from the GAO that Social Security, Veterans Affairs, and the DOD are making progress when it comes to educating our wounded warriors about Social Security disability benefits and expediting their claims, there is more work to do. Specifically, we must improve outreach in veterans’ hospitals and expedite the transfer of DOD medical records to Social Security so younger combat wounded veterans will have better, faster access to the benefits they have earned. America’s servicemen and women are the cornerstone of our democracy and they should expect nothing less.”

Service members who have been seriously wounded may be eligible for Social Security disability insurance (DI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits from SSA, in addition to possible disability benefits from VA and DOD. In 2007, advocates began reporting that wounded warriors – service members wounded since 2001 in Iraq or Afghanistan – often did not know about SSA’s disability benefits or were encountering barriers when they attempted to apply.

The Social Security Subcommittee has urged SSA to make improving service delivery to wounded warriors a top priority. In addition, the Subcommittee asked GAO to conduct a study to determine what challenges wounded warriors face in accessing SSA’s disability benefits and what SSA, DOD, and VA have done to address these problems.

GAO’s report, released October 15, found that SSA, DOD and VA have worked together since 2007 to significantly expand outreach to wounded warriors to inform them about SSA’s disability benefits. GAO also found that SSA has successfully taken measures to expedite these disability claims, with help from DOD and VA.

Not all service delivery problems have been fixed, however. GAO found that some wounded warriors still face delays in receiving benefits from SSA because DOD does not transfer their medical records to SSA quickly enough. GAO recommended that DOD and SSA work together to address this problem. In addition, GAO recommended that SSA and VA work together to expand outreach to already-discharged veterans to make sure that they are aware of SSA’s disability benefits. The report identified several groups in particular need of outreach, including those suffering from traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Chairman Tanner and Ranking Member Johnson joined colleagues from other House subcommittees to urge Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue to promptly carry out GAO’s further recommendations.

“Again, we commend you on the success of your efforts to improve service delivery for wounded warriors who may be eligible for Social Security or SSI disability benefits, and look forward to working with you to ensure that they are fully informed about these benefits,” they wrote in letters to the agencies.

About Congressman John Tanner

John Tanner represents the 8th Congressional District in West and Middle Tennessee. Co-founder of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats, Tanner serves on the Ways and Means Committee, where he chairs the Social Security Subcommittee, and on the Foreign Affairs Committee. A veteran of the U.S. Navy and the Tennessee Army National Guard, Tanner chairs the U.S. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and is serving a two-year term as NATO PA President.

Books, movies, and TV shows offer valuable insight into experience of the soldier, but until now, there has been nothing to truly help the general population empathize with the others involved in our country’s wars: those who watch the people they love most leave for war and who–from that moment on–try to hold onto the last touch of the hand, the last smile, the last hug. Because it could be the last. From the day the service member touches down in Iraq or Afghanistan (or, earlier – in Vietnam, or Germany), every minute thereafter is spent knowing that could be the minute the beloved soldier dies.

Those who have never experienced a deployment hear people tell their stories on TV, and they think, “I bet it’s hard.” But being told it’s hard doesn’t do the experience justice, doesn’t help people understand.

“The uniformed soldiers just outside the doorway need not say a word — the spouse inside already knows what they are about to say. It is a painful and familiar scene, one played out often in fiction. But what was life like at home, before the fateful knock? … Tsetsi’s details are the things that ring truest about Homefront: a clock Mia sets to Iraqi time; the grit on Jake’s letters, which smell like ’sweat and mud’,” writes reporter Seth Robbins in a recent issue of the Stars and Stripes newspaper, distributed worldwide to U.S. military, Department of Defense civilians, contractors, and their families.

Homefront, which propels readers into the hell, the horror, and the unexpected humor of waiting through a deployment, continues to wow critics with its unapologetic and intimate literary glimpse inside the mind of a woman who sends her soul mate to war.

Reviews

• “Homefront is ultimately about how we choose to deal with loss and grief, even when those we are mourning are still alive. It is one of the most powerful and brilliant books I have read in a long time.” – Pop Culture Zoo
• Fort Rucker Army wife Beth Kernaghen writes, “I have read this book three times. I keep going back to this story because it makes me feel understood. And given the present state of things, it is a comfort to be understood, and to know there is an opportunity for others to understand what they may never experience.”
• Emmy Award winner James C. Moore writes, “As a television news correspondent, I spent years reporting from military bases where young families and lovers were being separated by the decisions of old men. I wondered what their lives were like after the planes and trains had departed and carried off the fathers and mothers and daughters and sons into an unknowable risk. I had never had a better understanding of the agony of military separation until I read Kristen Tsetsi’s haunting and lyrical debut.”

Press

• The Stars & Stripes
• WSMV-TV Channel 4 (NBC), “Better Nashville” (Aug. 13, 2009)
• Fort Campbell, KY/Clarksville, TN Leaf Chronicle (Aug. 9, 2009)
• Beth Wilson’s “Navy Homefront Talk” Radio (July 15, 2009)
• GI Radio (June 16, 2009)
• NPR-WKMS Radio (June 5, 2009)

About Kirsten Tsetsi

The author and her husband days before he deployed to Iraq from Fort Campbell, KY on February 28, 2003.

Kristen Tsetsi is a former Journal Inquirer reporter, former Austin Peay State University English professor, award-winning fiction writer and Pushcart Prize nominee. Her husband, a former 101st Airborne Chinook pilot, deployed to Iraq in 2003 and returned a year later. The unimaginably complex and profound year spent waiting for him, combined with her writing experience, made her uniquely qualified to tell the private story of waiting with the rawness and accuracy it requires.

She currently lives just outside of Nashville, TN.

Although it masquerades as a “career exploration test,” I was appalled when I first read the tidbits on the grading sheet, test materials and booklet on a test called the ASVAB, a test most high school juniors (11th grade) take.

ASVAB, you ask? What’s that? ASVAB stands for Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery; I had to visit three websites to find the acronym actually spelled out. Yep. My grandson, 17, has been tested by the U.S. Government and the only reasons for that are the probability of intense recruitment efforts or the possibility of forced military service — i.e.: a draft. It’s a logical conclusion, given the issues facing recruiters in a country increasingly disenchanted and disgusted with the policies behind the Iraq War (and the physical, emotional and financial cost of that war), policies that have tens of thousands of U.S. troops deployed in the Middle East, policies that have stretched our troops to the breaking point.

I sat at the kitchen table, thinking that most parents may be under the impression that this is just another in a long line of standardized tests offered as our children move from kindergarten to grade 12. Not so. Except for the local school, nobody in the Departments of Education at the County, State or Federal level see these tests. Instead, the results are fed directly to the military. Further research linked me to a nationwide network of peace and social justice organizations targeting this issue.

To quote directly from the test score sheet sent to parents in the Clarksville-Montgomery County school system:

“Personal identity information (Name, social security number, street address, and telephone number) and test scores will not be released to any agency outside of the Department of Defense (DoD), the Armed Forces, the Coast Guard, and (your) school. Your school or local school system can determine any further release of information. The DoD will use your scores for recruiting and research purposes for up to two years. After that the information will be used by the DoD for research purposes.”

“The Military Entrance Score (also called the AFQT), which stands for Armed Forces Qualification Test) is the score used to determine your qualifications for entry into any branch of the United States Armed Forces or the Coast Guard. The Military Entrance Score predicts in a general way how well you might do how well you might do in training and on the job in military occupations. Your score reflects your standing compared to American men and women 18 to 23 years of age.”

The United States Department of Defense developed ASVAB with input from a panel of career development experts and “designed to encourage students to increase their level of self-knowledge and to understand how that information could be linked to civilian and military occupational characteristics.” The ASVAB Program recently was re-designed (app. 2002) to “be helpful” to virtually all students, whether they are planning on immediate employment after high school in civilian or military occupations, or further education at a university, community college, or vocational institution. The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) is a multiple choice test, administered by the United States Military Entrance Processing Command, used to determine qualification for enlistment in the United States Armed Forces.

High School Version

The “High School Version” is officially called “Form 18/19.” It’s a paper-based ASVAB commonly given to juniors and seniors in high school through a cooperative program between the Department of Defense and the Department of Education. The test is offered at more than 13,000 high schools and post secondary schools in the United States. The primary purpose of this test is not for enlistment in the military (although the test scores can be used for military enlistment (Ed: Then why is it that only the DoD gets the results?). The primary purpose of this test is to help school counselors and students discover where a student’s basic aptitude lies. Approximately 900,000 students take Form 18/19 ASVAB each year.

The test is often optionally administered to American high school students when they are in the 11th grade, though anyone eligible to and interested in enlisting can take it. The ASVAB was first instituted in 1976, and it underwent a revision in 2002. In 2005, the test’s percentile ranking scoring system was re-normalized, to ensure that a score of 50% really did represent doing better than exactly 50% of test-takers.

The test grades highlight six areas or interest: Realistic, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional, and Investigative. Each of these areas is linked to specific career choices. The catalogue shows pictures of happy people swiming, making music, repairing bicycles, becoming firefighters, filmmaking, and exploring the world in science and travel. Interspersed are also things like flight mechanic, pilot, aircraft launch and recovery, artillery and missile crews, armored assault vehicle crews, and … you get the idea.

“The reason to have a military is to be prepared to fight and win wars…it’s not a jobs program.” ~~ Vice President Dick Cheney

ASVAB gives the military easy access to nearly a million high school students nationwide, presenting the test as “voluntary” despite the fact that tens of thousands of high school students are forced to take it. High schools in at least 34 states across the country require all juniors to take ASVAB, a military entrance exam given to fresh recruits to determine their aptitude for various military occupations. The test is given to high school students because school administrators are convinced it assists children in identifying a wide range of appropriate career paths. The ASVAB is also used to recruit students into the military.

ASVAB ‘Career Exploration Program’, as the military prefers to call it, provides the the DoD with access to high school children through an obscure privacy loophole. The testing program circumvents the opt-out provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and Section 9528 of the No Child Left Behind Act. The ASVAB contains no requirement of an opt-out notification. Unless a high school takes measures to protect student privacy, the data from the test is forwarded to recruiters and to the military’s Joint Advertising Market Research and Studies (JAMRS) Program, a massive database that has compiled 4.5 million records of 16-18 year-olds.

“The No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to give students’ contact information to military recruiters — or that individual students and parents can opt out of this requirement. Some schools are informing students and parents and providing opt-out forms, sometimes as a result of community pressure, but many aren’t.” ~~ Community Media Workshop

Although military regulations do allow schools to preclude test information from reaching recruiting services, school administrators are often unaware of the option and few elect to protect student privacy. According to data released by the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command (USMEPCOM) in November, 2007, only 5.7% of the 573,504 students who were given the ASVAB in fiscal year 2007 were tested on condition that their data not be released for recruitment purposes. Without parental consent, children who sit for the four-hour ASVAB sign a “Privacy Statement” that gives permission to the military to use social security numbers, sensitive demographic information, and test results for recruiting purposes. This practice runs counter to state laws that protect the privacy rights of minors, according to a brief by the National Lawyers Guild, Los Angeles Chapter.

Students can “opt out” of the handing over of their contact info to military recruiters by their school.

“The military asks school administrations to give them the phone number and addresses of all junior and senior students.  The law says that if a student has a letter or form signed by his/her parent which states that the school does NOT have permission to give out their child’s contact info to recruiters, then the school must respect the parent’s decision and not give up the info. ‘Opt out’ policies vary from school to school, district to district,   If there is  a form, it is often in the stack of papers students get in the first few days of school and it is highly overlooked.  In fact, some schools do not even know their own policy, so you have to push them to find out, and if they do not have one in place then you can help create that policy.  In the meantime, however, they must accept your requests in whatever form you give them.” ~~ National Organization Opposing Militarization of Youth

What is amazing is that this test, administered so comprehensively to our American students, has generated an ASVAB for Dummies on the market. What is even more amazing is that someone somewhere thinks you can study for a test designed to measure your personal interests!

I do not  resent the fact that our children are taking aptitude tests; I do resent the fact that that these tests have nothing to do with the Department of Education and everything to do with the Department of Defense.

When my granddaughters received military recruiting information, my daughter and I tore it up, unopened. We will do the same for my grandson, who is “helper” of a kinder, gentler mentality. This “career exploration” test is nothing less than a try-out for military service administered to a captive audience of millions of students hovering within a year or so of “draft-able” age — 18.

Under current law, young men aged 18-25 must register with — place their names on a list maintained by — the Selective Service System (SSS). Citizens must register within 30 days of their 18th birthday. Non-citizens must also register, unless they’re in the country on a student visa or visitor’s visa. (Check the SSS web site for more detailed information on registration requirements.)

Refusing to register is against the law. The penalty is a fine up to $250,000 and up to 5 years in jail. However, a large number of people have not registered and, since the mid 1980s, no one has been prosecuted. But non-registrants can be denied government jobs and financial aid for college. Immigrants can be barred from becoming citizens. In addition, many states impose restrictions on non-registrants, such as denying them a driver’s license. ~~ Resource Center for Non-Violence

I grew up in an era of draft when the staging ground of war was Vietnam and Cambodia. The only way a draft would be remotely palateable at this time in history is if it contained an option for peaceful non-military community service for both young men and young women. The 21st century mandate for war has never impressed me; this backdoor evaluation of potential draftees appalls me. The Vietnam/draft era is revisited in the recent film, Across the Universe, a Beatles retrospective in which “dime a dozen” draftees are rubber stamped into the war zone, charged with bringing liberty to the far side of the world.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is a list developed by the RCNV (Resource Center for Non-Violence) of what to work for at your high school in terms of “opting out:”

• Prominently display the opt-out information on the student Emergency Card.
• Ensure that the right to opt out from giving information to the military is not linked to other releases of information (so that the district cannot combine the release of contact information to recruiters with other agencies and thereby force students to give up receiving contacts from institutions like colleges).
• Students should have the right to opt themselves out, and either students or parents should be able opt-out at any time of the year.Provide contact information on the opt-out form for alternative viewpoints (such as the Resource Center for Nonviolence, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, so that students can get a more balanced picture of what it means to join the military).
• Development of a packet of resources on rights to privacy from military recruiters and information about the practices of military recruiters and alternatives to military service.Charge the military recruiters (and all other institutional recruiters) for access to student contact information.
• Have all recruiters sign an affidavit declaring compliance with local, state, and national discrimination laws.
• Public notification of military recruiter visits to schools.
• Written correspondence to congress people and to the state School Boards Association to suggest making opt-in legal.
• Organize an Opt Out Week. For example, Click here to check out this blog

For more information, visit these websites:

NNOMY (National Network Opposing Militarization of Youth)

RCNV (Resource Center for Non-Violence)

National Priorities Project

National Lawyers Guild

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The below quotes are attributed to Donald Rumsfeld by Think Progress

‘I Have Never Painted A Rosy Picture’ About Iraq – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

What he actually said:

Dec. 18, 2002: Lary King : What’s the current situation in Afghanistan? Donald Rumsfeld: It is encouraging. They have elected a government through the Loya Jirga process. The Taliban are gone. The al Qaeda are gone.

Feb. 7, 2003: “It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.”

Feb. 20 2003: “‘Do you expect the invasion, if it comes, to be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq?’ Jim Lehrer asked the defense secretary on PBS’ The News Hour. ‘There is no question but that they would be welcomed,’ Rumsfeld replied, referring to American forces.”

Mar. 30, 2003: “It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.”

What the General Abizaid, the Commander of the U.S. Central Command in Iraq is saying:

I believe that the sectarian violence is probably is as bad as I’ve seen it in Baghdad in particular, and that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move toward civil war. – Commander of the U.S. Central Command, General Abizaid

Think Progress also reports that:

It will be the first time Rumsfeld has testified publicly about the war before the committee since February 2006. Here’s what’s happened in Iraq since then:

– Approximately 300 U.S. troops have died in Iraq
– Approximately 2,530 U.S. troops have been wounded
– Well over 10,000 Iraq civilians have been killed
– Insurgents have conducted an average of 620 attacks per week
– In March there were 7.8 hours of electricity per day in Baghdad (down from 16-24 hours before the war), last month there were 7.6 hours.
– In March there were 133,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Today there are 132,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and plans to raise that number to 135,000.

That’s Rumsfeld’s record. Now he has to explain why it shows that we should “stay the course.”

Senator Clinton says that Donald Rumsfeld should resign:

“The secretary has lost credibility with the Congress and with the people. It’s time for him to step down and be replaced by someone who can develop an effective strategy and communicate it effectively to the American people and to the world.” – The Associated Press

What is the plan for victory in Iraq and Afghanistan? Where is the timetable to bring our troops home out of harms way? Why are our soldiers really still fighting and dying in Iraq? Is it for a new neocon version of the cold war? To enrich Haliburton and the military industrial complex? Forget the sound bites! I want, no I demand a honest and truthful answer in plain and clear english!

If Donald Rumsfeld can not provide a straight answer to my questions, then I must agree with Senator Clinton on this issue.